2 Best Sights in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Honoring Vietnam's national dress, this private museum is set on stunningly picturesque grounds that are a very long way from downtown. Once you pay the admission fee, a guide will take you to the two beautiful wooden exhibition houses, which showcase ao dais from the 17th century to the modern day. Smaller kids will like feeding the fish and playing ao dai quoits (and generally letting off steam on the verdant lawns if they're all city-ed out). This place is—amazingly—still off the tourist radar.

The outside of this museum showcasing the history of traditional Vietnamese medicine might be plain, but inside it's a fabulous carved wooden wonderland, with the interior of an authentic antique house on the third floor and a re-created Cham-style gazebo on the rooftop. Displays, enhanced by audiovisuals and drawing on nearly 3,000 items in the collection, range from Stone Age pots to 3rd-century coins (for coin-rubbing therapy), ancient texts, bronze kettles, and a range of cutting, chopping, and storing utensils. The concluding part of the introductory film (subtitled in English) and the shop at the exit are a reminder that this is a private museum, set up by Fito Pharma. It's well worth a visit for the insight into traditional Vietnamese daily life through the ages.